View of Wall Street, NYC by Veronica Lawlor, pen and ink
DAY 29
Times Square, ink and blue wash
“I love my New York City. I feel so comfortable walking down my streets. I have not a worry in the world. Now, of course, I have all four eyes open: It’s still New York City, after all.
“I did these small thumbnails to get a few quick views of Times Square, and then came back the next day to do the larger drawing.”—Eddie
EXERCISE 29
This exercise is called “The City in Seconds” for a reason—you shouldn’t take more than sixty seconds or so to do each thumbnail! A thumbnail is a small sketch of a picture that professional illustrators use to decide on picture design and content before committing to the final image. It helps as a tool to work with art directors as well. Using a portable fountain pen and a small sketchbook, go to the busiest intersection in your town. If you live in New York City, head over to Times Square, by all means! Make four small box shapes on your page and, turning to face four different directions, do a quick thumbnail of each. Choose one of these views to make a larger drawing from.
Times Square thumbnails, ink and wash
TIP
- A small portable water brush will allow you to add wash to your thumbnails (and main drawing) while still keeping your materials light. Look for one that has a screw-in refillable barrel.
DAY 30
“Below is a drawing/watercolor I made when I took a trip out to the Joshua Tree National Park in California, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. What a challenge to draw ... there are huge slabs of rock scattered about and, in this particular scene, a few sparse pieces of vegetation. It is so monumental that I asked myself, ‘How do I create anything more beautiful and sublime than what I’m already looking at?’ Of course, I tried anyway!”—Margaret
Joshua Tree National Park, pencil and watercolor
EXERCISE 30
Go to the most beautiful landscape you can think of. Bring your watercolor set, some water-soluble crayons, your pad, and a few pencils, and spend the day creating pictures of the beauty in front of you. Choose a nice, sunny day and bring a picnic lunch for yourself as well. Have fun with your “plein air” painting and enjoy the day, impressionist-painter style!
Vegetation, pencil and watercolor
Joshua tree, watercolor and water-soluble crayon
VARIATION
After you’ve completed the main landscape view, you might want to do some additional paintings of smaller aspects of the landscape, as Margaret has done here with her watercolor paintings of the vegetation and individual Joshua tree.
DAY 31
Nick’s pizzeria, pen and brush
“No offense to the local pizza shops in my new hometown, but I miss Nick’s. Hands-down, it’s the best pizza in New York. They don’t sell it by the slice, but I never had a hard time polishing off two-thirds of a pie—and who doesn’t like a slice or two for breakfast the morning after? I drew this during an afternoon visit last April—okay, that day it was hard to polish off a whole pie—when I was taking a break from drawing the construction on the street for the new subway line in New York City on Second Avenue. The women in the drawing were a little freaked out over the commotion caused by the work going on outside.”—Dominick
EXERCISE 31
Go to your favorite eatery and make a drawing of it. Use a fountain pen with black ink and add some gray tones with a brush marker. Try to go during mealtime so you have plenty of patrons to draw as well—no need to create a bad advertisement of an empty place for your favorite restaurant! Position yourself at a table where you can see the action: people eating, the waiters coming and going, take-out traffic if there is any. Make a few little thumbnails before you jump into the larger drawing. Of course, get yourself something nice to eat: After all, this is your favorite restaurant for a reason. You could thumbnail while you wait for your food to come ...
Bricks, detail
Window, detail
TIP
- Pay close attention to details that identify the location. In this example, Dominick has emphasized the brick walls and also the construction going on outside. Don’t neglect the restaurant windows and what is happening on the street beyond. As in the case of Dom’s favorite NYC pizzeria, the street scene is definitely part of the ambience!
DAY 32
Village of Oia, colored pencil
“I can dream of Santorini ’til Christmas if I want to—why not? I almost don’t remember making this drawing [above] on the Greek island, because of how delirious I was becoming from the heat. The island is baked in a beautifully intense sunshine that never lets up!! Back at the hotel that night, I was looking through my drawing pad and thought, ‘When did I do that?’ This is a famous and much-photographed spot on the island, the village of Oia.”—Despina
“This drawing [below, right] is from a summer when I spent the better part of my time reportage-ing around New York City. Often I feel overwhelmed at Rockefeller Center, maybe because there is so much to look at: great art, tons of people; I don’t know, but on this day I was able to focus on the seasonal restaurant [it covers the ice skating rink in warmer weather] and draw from a pretty interesting point of view.”—Greg
EXERCISE 32
Choose a scenic spot, either city or country, and make a drawing from that point of view. It could be the best overlook of your town, an interesting urban viewpoint, looking down, looking up—anything that is out of the usual vision would work for this exercise. If you have access to a balcony, this would be the time to take advantage of it! Use graphite pencil and colored pencils with a bit of crayon, as Despina and Greg have done here. Have fun showing off the best view in town!
TIP
- At such a distance, small details are going to be hard to see and put down. Focus on the larger shapes and identifying information that needs to be in the picture. Allow your color to be more emotional than representational.
Rockefeller Center, graphite, colored pencil, and crayon
DAY 33
Paddleboats on the Mississippi River, pen and ink
“New Orleans is such a romantic city—the jazz music, the voodoo vibe, the Mississippi River, the wrought-iron architecture, and the clomping of horse hooves on the cobblestone streets. Not to mention the warm weather and, in springtime, the smell of honeysuckle blossoms in the air. Mix that with the slow pulse of the paddleboats and the sounds of gypsy guitars in your mind—don’t you feel relaxed already?”—Veronica
EXERCISE 33
Create a travel postcard of your favorite city or village: either one you visit or your hometown. Find the most unusual thing or things about the place and make some drawings of it: pen and ink, pencil—add some color, too, if you want. Then, break that drawing down into postcard ideas, similar to the way I’ve used aspects of the New Orleans paddleboats to come up with the three poster thumbnails at top right. This is called using your notes in reportage: taking small aspects of something and amplifying them—for example, the smokestack from the paddleboat becomes a poster image all by itself. This is a great way to get the most visual mileage out of a day spent on location!
VARIATION
In addition to creating your postcard sketches from aspects of a particular scene you’ve drawn, you might try simply cropping out parts of your drawing that make a nice postcard as well. Take a piece of tracing paper and lay it over your location drawing. Cut a rectangular shape out of cardboard. Lay the cardboard cutout over the work and tracing paper and trace interesting smaller pictures from the larger one.
New Orleans postcard thumbnails, pen and ink, marker, colored pencil, pastel
Horse and carriage, pen and ink
DAY 34
“These quick, messy ink drawings are of the New York City side on-ramp to the George Washington Bridge linking New York and New Jersey. I have a whole stack of drawings toward a series I’m calling 100 Views of the GWB. I was inspired to do this by Hokusai, the Japanese artist who famously created 100 Views of Mount Fuji near Tokyo. I was also inspired by the industrial elegance of the bridge, a landmark that dominates my neighborhood.”—Kati
George Washington Bridge One, pen and ink
TIPS
- Working with loose ink on location can be a challenge. You might try a clip-on ink pot; many art supply stores carry them. This frees your hands for drawing.
- Kati remembers that it was very important to draw from a nice comfy spot with a ledge to lean her pad on. Also, try carrying an old cloth with you so you are prepared to clean up the inevitable ink spills that will occur! Of course, those are the best parts of the drawing.
George Washington Bridge Two, pen and ink
EXERCISE 34
Select a landmark of your neighborhood, be it urban, suburban, or country, and resolve to spend a few hours documenting it with drawings. Get a sturdy board that you can lean on to draw, such as one made of Masonite, and use some clips to attach a few pieces of paper to it. Walk slowly around the landmark that you wish to document and make some small designs of the different views you see as you are walking around. Take no more than an hour to do this. Pick three that you like, keeping in mind that variety is the spice of life. Take your time; make the drawings you selected in a very relaxed manner. You want the feeling of the place to come through, how you feel about it, so getting uptight about the drawings won’t do at all! Use a thick quill or bamboo pen and loose ink to achieve a graphic quality, as Kati has done.
DAY 35
Eiffel Tower, pencil, pastel, and oil crayon
“ True realism consists in revealing the
surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing.”
—Jean Cocteau
“What a perfect description of the magical art of picture making. And Jean Cocteau’s beautiful way to describe realism is even more appropriate to consider when drawing the Eiffel Tower of Paris, a monument to romantic fantasy.”—Michele
EXERCISE 35
Using deep, rich colors such as pastels or oil crayons, sit at your table and make a drawing of a place you have always fantasized about visiting. Let the romance of your destination influence your color choices and marks. You might choose a landmark of the place, such as the Eiffel Tower, to help identify it for yourself. Or not—remember, this is a picture for you and you alone. Save it to bring with you when the day comes that you actually make the journey!
TIP
- Reading some poetry or quotes pertaining to your fantasy destination can help you get ideas as to what to draw and how you want the drawing to feel.